Medical Malpractice or Medical Mismanagement?

The Deliberations blog points us to a post from David Swanner at the South Carolina Trial Law blog. Mr. Swanner’s post points to the fact that medical malpractice trials are becoming harder to win, and suggests the following way to help the jury understand the case:
Don’t call it “medical malpractice” – call it “medical mismanagement.” [...]

Ah, malpractice in Illinois… again

Remember yesterday’s post about new insurance companies coming to Illinois?
 Now there’s this article saying that doctors are leaving Southern Illinois because of the changes to the wrongful death act (which allow the jury to consider emotional distress).
Now let’s look at this, shall we? Here are some quotes from the article:
“We had reform to try to [...]

New Malpractice Insurer in Illinois

The Trib has this article about a new Medical Malpractice Insurance company coming to Illinois – it’s notable because the company cites “tort reform” for its willingness to come to the Land of Lincoln.
Specifically, the article cites a recent change in law that limits damages for pain and suffering to $500,000 against doctors and $1,000,000 [...]

The Secret Illinois Law that “The Man” Doesn’t Want Jurors to Know About

The “Lost Chance” doctrine allows a medical malpractice plaintiff to prove proximate cause by showing that the defendant’s negligent conduct either increased the risk of harm or lessened the effectiveness of treatment. Holton v. Memorial Hosp., 176 Ill.2d 95, 111, 679 N.E.2d 1202, 1209 (1997). This is true even if the chance of recovery would be [...]

Signing away your right to sue for malpractice?

Apparently some doctors in New Jersey have started requiring patients to sign malpractice waivers that would cap potential damages, require arbitration of all cases, and otherwise limit the patient’s legal options in the event of malpractice.
I don’t see these holding up in court, but I’m not really sure. What I am sure about is that [...]

Medical Malpractice Lawyers Take Note: Juror Bias

I have always suspected that jurors in malpractice cases have a bias toward the defendant doctor. I never really had any statistics to back it up, but it just seemed that way.
Well now, thanks to the Deliberations blog, I have statistics to back me up. Apparently there was a study into juror biases in medical [...]

There is NO malpractice crisis

Talking heads all over the country have been complaining in recent years about a “malpractice crisis,” and how areas are having problems finding doctors because of high malpractice insurance costs. They blame this on the trial lawyers, who file suits on behalf of people who were seriously injured by a physician’s negligence. People call these lawsuits “frivilous,” these [...]